The city of Ghent wants to help 11,000 families with a social mobility budget. From 1 May 2027, they can get financial support for car sharing, bike sharing, purchasing or renting a bicycle, bicycle repairs, cycling lessons, and collective transport to work. The city is allocating 4.46 million euros for this purpose.
Mobility Alderman Joris Vandenbroucke (Voor Gent) says the measure aims to tackle transport poverty. The scheme runs until the end of 2031. That means the city is allocating roughly €1 million per year for the measure.
Alternative mobility
For a single person, the budget is up to 125 euros per year. Add 125 euros for each extra family member, up to a maximum of 500 euros per family. For car-sharing or organized commuting, the maximum amounts are higher: 300 euros for single people and 675 euros for families.
Users pay 20 percent of the amount themselves. With a budget of 500 euros, for instance, a family contributes 100 euros, and the city pays 400 euros.
Ghent is not the first city to allocate funds for alternative mobility. Still, it appears to be the only one providing a structural, income-based mobility budget that can be used quite flexibly for bicycles, bicycle repairs, bike and car sharing, and organized commuting services.
More than a social discount
It is therefore more than a standard social discount on bus or tram fares. Users can choose from a range of sustainable transport solutions based on their specific needs. And that aligns remarkably well with what the European Commission currently identifies as a possible approach to transport poverty.
Since introducing the Low-Emission Zone (LEZ), Ghent has already offered a mobility budget of €500 to anyone who surrendered their license plate. People could use it for alternative modes of transport. But the new system is fundamentally broader.
Other cities in Flanders
Flanders explicitly defines mobility poverty as a policy issue and states that an estimated one in five Belgians faces it. Vulnerability depends not only on income but also on place of residence, access to public transport, possession of a driver’s license, age, and digital skills. Other cities in Flanders have therefore introduced similar initiatives.
The city of Mechelen also has a mobility budget, but here, too, the condition is that people hand in their license plates. The city is also running the Recast project, which specifically experiments with mobility budgets, support, and affordable car-sharing for vulnerable groups in social housing areas.
However, it remains a research and pilot project. In Roeselare, too, people with low incomes can get a discount on shared cars, but the city’s offering is much more limited than in Ghent.
International precedents
There are indeed clear international precedents, such as in Portland, Oregon, where disadvantaged individuals can use the ‘Transport Wallet’, or in Los Angeles, where low-income residents receive financial assistance for bus and metro services, trains, bike-sharing, e-bikes and scooters, taxis, Uber/Lyft, intercity travel, and even purchases at bicycle shops.
In many European cities – Berlin and Grenoble, for instance – income-based mobility support is much more common, though usually limited to public transport.
